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K – Drama Review: Cheer Up! Episode 1

Hello to all my Dramatics and welcome to my review of the K Drama Cheer Up! Episode 1. This drama just premiered on DramaFever and I look forward to viewing this! I will be joining the DramaFever Drama Club for this drama so I am very excited to review this drama for everyone. Stay tuned and make sure you look out for that post coming soon.

Our drama starts as we meet Yeon Doo played by Eun Ji. I am a fan of her from being in the group APink and I have sen her in other dramas such as Trot Lovers, Answer Me 1997, and That Winter Wind Blows. She is a very talented actress and singer. I really enjoy her character and the chemistry she has with the other actors.

So Yeon Doo is placed 196 out of the 200 students in her class. She is leader and member of the dance club Real Kings. Because these students are low ranking in their class, they are often mocked and teased. So being in the dance club is like a stress reliever for them. The room that they use for practice is right next door to another dance team called Baek Ho. The students on this cheer team are the top academic students in the school. These students use their space for studying. Team Baek Ho hears noise coming from the Real Kings room which distracts them from studying, so they cut off the power to the Real Kings’ room.

Of course this creates conflict between both groups. Real Kings creates their own electricity by using a bicycle and a generator. This drowns out the classical music being played in the Baek Ho room. After the Real Kings’ radio blows out and they decide to confront Baek Ho face to face.

Yeon Doo gets into a argument with Kim Yeol, the cocky and handsome leader of team Baekho. A group of parents are in a meeting with teachers and Administrators with questions about clubs at the school. One of the parents said she heard from her daughter that one of the clubs is loud and disruptive. The principal states that if a club is disruptive they will disband them immediately. As the conflict between Baekho and Real Kings begins to get stronger, a member of Team Baek Ho gets a text from her mother, telling her that she is on her way and not to get in trouble. Eventually, the argument between the two groups gets physical as Yeon Doo tries to get one of the members to hit her while the rest the Real Kings goes after the members of Baek Ho.

A teacher comes out of his room to see both groups fighting. The teacher steps in just in time and breaks them up as the principal and parents arrive around the corner. We see Yeon Doo in her room with a member from Baek Ho named Soo A.. We soon discover that these two are roommates. These two girls are roommates and are on rival teams which in my opinion is a conflict within itself. Yeon Doo expresses to her roommate that it’s unfair it is that Baek Ho gets away with everything and Soo A advises that Yeon Doo meet with Kim Yeol to extend an olive branch.

The rooms of Baek Ho and Real Kings are trashed so Yeon Doo asks Kim Yeol to meet her so they can form a truce. Yeon Doo does not really see this as in advantage because the school wants to get rid of the Real Kings anyway. Yeon Doo is yelling at him and she trips and falls on top of him. They are in a compromising position like they are about to kiss. So Kim Yeol says that either she can move, he can move, or they can kiss. And just as he is about to kiss her we hear a cell phone camera snap from outside and the two separate quickly.

At this point we do not know who took the picture but we see the picture being sent to the teacher with a text about inappropriate behavior. Another teacher comes in who stands over his shoulder and sends the picture to the principal.

The Real Kings see a poster at school which says that their club is disbanded due to inappropriate behavior. Included in this poster is a picture of Yeon Doo and Kim Yeol as they are about to kiss. The Real Kings are very upset by this because they know that the picture is not what it seems. Plus the members of Baek Ho are getting no punishment at all.

Yeon Doo runs to the principals office but she cannot get inside. The principal is meeting with Kim Yeol. The principal does not punish him because he is the number one student in the class and his father is a very powerful man.

Outside the principals’ office Yeon Doo is waiting to get inside to talk to the principal but Kim Yeol drags her away before she can tell her off. She asks him to tell the truth about the kiss that didn’t happen between them. He says he doesn’t want to, because it won’t be beneficial to him. Yeon Doo argues that it’s the truth, but he says it doesn’t matter which leaves her even more upset.

We then see Yeon Doo talking to her best friend Dong Jae, who is on the basketball team. He is played by N of the grouop VIXX. As you know I love K Pop and N is an amazing singer and dancer. He is so very talented and charming in this role of Dong Jae. He’s a good basketball player, but if he is going to be hit he will let the other player pass. Yeon Doo states that he has a physical handicap. We will find out more about this later I hope.

As she is hanging out with Dong Jae, she gets a call from one of the other members of Real Kings. Her room in being emptied of all of her possessions. Yeon Doo runs to the principals office and asks her for another chance, but the principal refuses. Kim Yeol looks sympathetic to the Yeon Doo loosing her room.

We then see Yeon Doo crying up on the roof surrounded by her things. He asks her if she feels bad and she says she dies. As she gets up to leave she sees that he has left a post-it on the wall instructing her to make a poster if she feels bad about what has happened to her.

Yeon Doo and Dong Jae start making posters and Soo A enters the room. She states that the posters will not make a difference. As she exits the room we see her deleting a photo from her phone, the one of Kim Yeol and Yeon Doo about to kiss. We discover that she is the one who took the picture and told the teacher on them. We then see a flashback of her being instructed on what students to get close to. Soo A’s mother really wants her daughter to be the number one student in her class and she will do anything she has to do in order to make that happen.

Yeon Doo posts the posters around the school and they are quickly taken down by the teacher. A member from the Board of Education comes to the school and the principal talks to him and she decides to punish all of the students by grounding them for two weeks, forbidding them from leaving campus and having their cell phone rights revoked. The students of course are not happy about this and they blame Yeon Doo for this punishment. The students berate her in the cafeteria and Soo A completely ignores her. The harrisment continues until Kim Yeol tells them to back off.

Yeon Doo is upset and she asks the teacher who sent the picture. He does not tell her, but when he leaves she takes a look at his phone and discovers that is was Soo A who took the picture. Yeon Doo is shocked and very hurt by this. She asks Soo A why she did that because they are friends. Soo A responds by saying that she has no friends at school.

Soo A then backs out of the singing group she was in with Yeon Doo and teams up with other girls which leaves Yeon Doo to sing the song alone. Yeon Doo becomes upset and she stops singing and calls out everyone in class who betrayed her including Soo A. She also calls out Kim Yeol for not admitting they didn’t kiss, and the other bullies as well. She blames the entire student body for being cowards. Soo A tells her that her behavior is the same way and Yeon Doo says that’s right and she will leave the school so she can be different from everyone else.

Yeon Doo runs out of the classroom and goes home to her mother who is making dinner for her. All of a sudden Yeon Doo starts to cry and she leaves the table. She goes to her room to reflect she hears a tap on her window. It’s Dong Jae who is her neighbor and he tells her that she has a lot of penalty points and that she is back in the school. to the Baek Ho room where she tells them that she is applying to join their dance club.

I cannot wait to see what happens next in Episode 2! I have a feeling things are going to get very interesting for these groups of students.

I hope that you all stay tuned as I review this drama. Check out my review on my You Tube Channel Cheer Up! Episode 1 and my blog! I will link the DramaFever review as well. Thank you all! Take Care and Hallyu On!